If you really want to discover your true self, you must be completely, deeply honest with yourself. Getting your shit together requires honesty and self-examination. If you’re not ready yet, that’s ok. When you are ready, you will know. The universe will give you a tap on the shoulder (or a great big shove, if necessary) to let you know, “this is the way to go” in finding your path. You might stumble as you search for your path, but each of us is meant to carve our own path. Your path is completely different from anyone else’s, expressing your own, unique, creative life force. This is as unique to you as your fingerprints and DNA.
Think of your true self as a small child who has been stuffed away within the closet of your mind, stored within the depths of your soul. Up until this point in your life, you have been expressing yourself through your outer world, latching onto habits and patterns that were created to make you feel safe. You are so accustomed to justifying your thoughts, feelings and behavior that you don’t see the golden cage that holds your true self and has been crafted from the energy you emit.
In order to discover your true self, you must walk through your own darkness. Only then will you understand that you are the darkness, and you are the light. You create your own world through your attitudes and beliefs. You are the only one who is holding you back. Once you realize this, you have a choice: you can choose to stay mentally and emotionally imprisoned within that golden cage, or you can choose to free yourself. You must understand that your past is not a life sentence. You alone hold the key to releasing yourself from ideas that have been holding you hostage for decades.
Our team, composed of Dr. Mari, Karen Reid and myself, are simply guides. Our guidance is designed to help you to remember who you really are, to help you to find your purpose, and to strip away all that is not you so that you can live your best life. We can only take you so far. Once you reach the door, you must open it yourself. That door leads to your mind. Opening it leads to your heart. Here you will find another door. That door leads you to love.
We teach you to look at why you do the things you do. Why you treat yourself the way you do. Why you think the thoughts you think. Then we delve into how people have treated you. And we ask you to be honest in how you’ve treated other people.
The only limitations you have are the limitations you place on yourself.
The Athanor
Self-awareness leads to understanding that you are a conscious being – you are the thinker, the feeler, and the doer. When you are aware, you can use your consciousness to master yourself. Mastering yourself requires transparent honesty. It strips away the illusion of the material world and turns you within yourself to the inner world you create.
Alchemists have a word called the athanor. This word is derived from an Arabic root and means “baker’s oven.” The athanor is a kind of furnace alchemists use that can maintain a steady heat for long periods of time. Inside the athanor lies the secret to changing lead into gold.
Think of the athanor as your “mind laboratory.” It sustains your force, energy and desire. It represents the power within you.
When you begin to strip away the things that are not important or real, your mental and emotional distortions, needs, wants and desires change. The things that you desire so much remain outside of you until you realize that everything is within you. If you use your inner world as a guide rather than your outer world, this will become evident.
The Subconscious and Conscious Mind
The brain and mind are two separate things. The brain is the bodily organ through which the mind works. The mind is your consciousness. Consciousness is a state of being aware, and it’s everywhere, vibrating its energy. It is the “I am.” It is made up of the conscious mind and the subconscious mind, which are inseparable.
We have three brains: the neocortex, which is the grey matter where cognitive function takes place; the limbic brain, which is our chemical/emotional brain; and the reptilian brain, which is the seat of your subconscious mind. These three brains are directly related to the gut brain, the heart brain and the mind brain. (Click the link above to read a blog post that speaks more directly to the brain in your gut).
Let’s focus specifically on the subconscious and conscious minds, which are one mind and work together. The subconscious mind, however, is greater than the conscious mind. The subconscious mind is the mind that we focus on in our workshops. It is also the place where prayer and meditation takes place. The subconscious mind is your own personal workshop. It is where your higher being resides. It is the cause of all of your involuntary action. It is the most important part of your consciousness.
The subconscious mind produces what you see in your outer world, while your conscious mind uses your five senses to verify that what you see in the outer world is real. Your conscious mind will try to deceive you, telling you that it knows something is true because you see it right in front of you. Your conscious mind finds it difficult to believe anything beyond the five senses. It operates through reason. Remember, though, that what you see in front of you that you call “real” or “true” began in your subconscious mind.
Your subconscious mind is where the seeds were planted. Learning to uproot the current weeds that have grown in your mind is the first step. The second step is to prepare the soil and the garden to plant new seeds. The third step is to plant the seeds, water the garden, make sure the sun shines down on them with its warmth, and allow the new plants to break through the soil into the daylight.
This is a very watered down explanation of neuroplasticity, which can be examined further by clicking the link above and reading the blog post, “How to Change Your Mind.” Simply speaking, neuroplasticity is the mind’s ability to change the brain. Our mental machinations alter the physical structure of our brain matter. When you change your mind, you change your brain, and you change your life.
Our neural networks in our brains make up our habits and beliefs and helped to form our personality. We can change them, however, through meditation, prayer, thinking and feeling.
Even while you are asleep, your subconscious mind keeps watch. It will release a treasure trove of information through your dreams, the thoughts and feelings that you wake up with, and the assumptions that you make about your life and the lives of others.
Once you train yourself to clearly recognize and identify what you think, you realize that those thoughts are only real because you give them power – by thinking about them, by having emotional reactions to them, by believing them. When you truly change your mind about the things that you see in your perceptions, that you hold outside of yourself, you will know that you have really changed. You will see things differently. You will begin to realize that you are the thinker and the creator of your reality.
The Power of Meditation
In our workshops, we teach four different forms of meditation. When they are scientifically applied and practiced, they will unlock the infinite wealth of information stored within your subconscious mind.
Meditation and prayer are one and the same to many people, including me. During prayer and meditation, we clear our mind of thoughts and remove our senses from the outer world. The subconscious mind is never concerned with something being “true” or “false.” It does not deduce if something is “good” or “evil.” It simply brings that thing into manifestation when you master the art of meditation and prayer. When we impress something on the subconscious mind with feeling and absolute focus, believing that the thing upon which we are meditating is real, the subconscious mind accepts that and brings it to fruition.
Sounds easy, doesn’t it? But it isn’t really as simple as it seems to be. Self-mastery, or mastering your mind, is required in order to accomplish this. Once you have mastered your mind, wherever you put your focus in your thought, it is there that your intention and energy will flow.
The subconscious mind is completely controlled by suggestion. During prayer, when we are in a state of controlled reverence, the mind is passive. However, it is also capable of functioning and absorbing the thoughts and feelings that we are putting into it. When you are praying or meditating, you must have no conflict in your mind. You must absolutely assume the mood and the state of your desire fulfilled. That’s how it works.
Self-empowerment involves digging deeply into your inner world. It is knowing yourself above everything else. When you understand yourself, you will understand your outer world. You will realize that what you are experiencing in your outer world is what you have created in your athanor, the laboratory of your mind. Your mind makes manifest your reality.
